Monday, December 23, 2013

Of Duck Dynasty, the Media, and Such....

Thanks to the current dust-up between Duck Dynasty's Phil Robertson and the media establishment, maybe the American people will finally get around to having a grown-up conversation about the nature of homosexuality and its proper place in the civilized world. It is a long-overdue conversation that badly needs to be held.

First a bit of background is in order. I was in graduate school in 1973 when, against the advice of experts in the treatment of homosexuals, the American Psychological Association's board sent a letter to members asking them to vote to remove homosexuality from the catalogue of disorders. I remember the event well because it became my lot to debate this topic, an assignment that necessitated considerable research. The APA’s letter was not based on any new medical or scientific information. It was written and funded by a lobbying group called the National Gay Task Force. The vote was a political act against bourgeois morality undertaken by a thoroughly radicalized APA which, in the same year, passed a resolution condemning American aggression in Vietnam.

In fact, the APA ignored its own definitions and diagnostic criteria in voting to “normalize” homosexuality.  Before 1973, mental health professionals treated homosexuality as a paraphilia, a deviant sexual behavior. In this model, homosexuals are defined as those who engage in homosexual behavior just as smokers are defined by habitual smoking; alcoholics by habitually-excessive drinking; and anorexics by their defining behaviors. Even today, after 40 years of PC polishing, a paraphilia is defined as “Any of a group of psychosexual disorders characterized by sexual fantasies, feelings, or activities involving a nonhuman object, a nonconsenting partner such as a child, or pain or humiliation of oneself or one's partner.” Sexual addiction is defined as “A condition in which some form of sexual behavior is employed in a pattern that is characterized by two key features: 1) recurrent failure to control the sexual behavior, and 2) continuation of the sexual behavior despite significant harmful consequences.” Homosexuality, let it be noted, qualifies as a paraphilia in every respect.

In the years following its 1973 APA victory, the homosexual lobby has been remarkably successful in convincing much of the public that the black Civil Rights model applies to its cause. It effectively sold the notion that homosexuality is a matter of status, not behavior. This concept is foundational to the debate because it leads to the belief that one is homosexual in the same way that one is black, or female, or tall. By insinuating the propaganda term "homophobia" into the popular culture's language, the lobby was able to successfully mass market the idea that failure to embrace homosexuality is both irrational and bigoted. In the popular culture, homosexuality and "heterosexuality" are now perceived to be co-equal matters of "sexual preference".  This is false, unfortunate, and dangerous. Despite a veritable blizzard of pro-homosexual propaganda, there is no credible scientific evidence capable of being replicated by disinterested investigators to suggest that homosexuality is anything other than a maladaptive obsessive-compulsive behavioral disorder that often kills its practitioners.

Phil Robertson is accused, among other things, of using coarse and crude language to describe homosexuality in his interview with GQ magazine. Perhaps he did so because anal sex, the primary homosexual act, is not only coarse and crude, but grossly unsanitary as well. The human anus is not a sex organ. However, it is host to dangerous colonies of pathogens, including but not limited to the HIV virus. That inescapable anatomical fact, plus the brutal mechanics of homosexuality's defining behavior and its all too frequent accompanying pattern of hyper-promiscuity, is why male homosexuals were disproportionately afflicted with syphilis and other STDs even before the AIDS epidemic decimated their ranks. It becomes hard to argue that the irresponsible behavior of people who habitually place themselves and their partners at risk by engaging in promiscuous anal sex should be regarded with favor by society at large.
 
For the time being, the Gods of Political Correctness are smiling on the homosexual lobby. The usual suspects are busily scurrying about to gain legitimacy for “gay marriage” whether through legislation or judicial fiat. At the same time large employers, including city and state governments, are granting “domestic partners” full employee benefits, including health insurance. Alas, actuarial tables have a way of being unforgiving and no amount of propaganda can change the fact that the average life expectancy of homosexual males is about 45 years. That is largely because, according to published data in refereed journals, between one-quarter and one-third of active male homosexuals report sexual encounters with as many as 200 anonymous partners per year. This “recurrent failure to control sexual behavior” often leads to death from AIDS (surely a “significant harmful consequence”). Even those homosexuals in so-called “committed relationships” are not necessarily in monogamous relationships. Many of them simply have a “favorite” primary partner of the moment.

Had news organizations only reported facts instead of propaganda designed to mislead, an informed public debate might have developed on this topic. As it is, in only a few short years the health care cost of this mindless pandering is going to be very high for insurers, other employees, and taxpayers. If there is any justice, there will be a political price as well for the politicians and corporate leaders who have taken us down this road.
 
FJB

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